According to this China Daily info-graphic made for Disability Prevention Davy, over 85 million Chinese are currently living with a disability. And what most of us, across cultures, consider to be life milestones (education, friendships, a love life, and a career, for example) can be demonstratively more challenging to achieve for these facing these challenges. There is still often a stigma in China and beyond in terms of addressing these issues for both young and old. While resources for addressing these development issues are still limited, there seems to be a growing number of platforms out there to help young people.

This is one of the reasons why we were so elated to check out the range of services being offered at The Learning Frontier. The fairly new educational company based out of BCIS in Shuangjiing is dedicated to providing bilingual, personalized guidance, and support services for children and families residing in Beijing.

They have on their team a variety of specialists focusing on mental health, education and learning, applied behavior analysis, and speech and language and occupational therapy to assist children and families to better understand their development and to help each child live up to their full potential in school and life.

With extensive facilities designed with both learning and play in mind, they have created a very conducive environment to help children and families work on improving critical thinking, improving motor skills, developing literacy, and more.

Check out this cute animation that they recently made explaining some of the services they offer to develop social skills. If you want to learn more or have a consultation about some more of the specific programs they have, email The Learning Frontier or give them a call to arrange a consultation.

The Learning Frontier
4th Floor, No. 11 Dongbai Lu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区东柏街11号四层
(6775 3268)

Photos: Kipp Whittaker

Lately I’ve been doing some haphazard research into the hazards of social media and the negative influence it is having on younger generations. It turns out that my generation is the last generation that actually has face-to-face social skills. No, not facetime-to-facetime social skills; I mean the kind where you are actually talking to the person in front of you. Without a screen. Okay, imagine sitting at a table with a few friends for lunch. Easy, right? Now imagine that instead of texting each other and posting images of your meal on social media sites, you simply sit together, enjoy the food, and talk. That’s face-to-face.

Although many in China are addicted to WeChat and Weibo, many expatriates are more accustomed to a steady diet of Facebook and Twitter.  By blocking these platforms along with Gmail and half the Interweb, not to mention making it painfully slow to use, “The Great Firewall” is actually bringing more expatriates together in real life settings. This also forces foreigners to put down their smart phones and actually ask for help with everything from directions to culinary advice. As one imaginary expat I “interviewed” told me, “Since I cannot use Yelp, I’ve been forced to ask my neighbors for advice on where to eat.”

If this pilot project to improve foreigner face-to-face social skills takes off, it is likely only a matter of time before even more social media sites get blocked in the name of saving real-life social skills.

This new insight has given me a change of heart and I’ve all but stopped going online. Why bother searching for things on Wikipedia when I can just ask a scholarly friend or neighbor? Come to think of it, that would make a killer app.

Photo: Media Cache

An article in the Guardian recently asked, “Why aren’t Chinese students at UK universities getting top degrees?” A recent study of undergraduate students found that compared to 52% of students from outside the European Union who scored a 2:1 or higher (2:1 is the second highest degree you can achieve under the British undergraduate degree classification), only 42% of students from China did. And this is compared to an overall 68% of students who achieved a 2:1 or higher.

Why is this? Zhiqi Wang and Ian Crawford — authors of a study that compared the average marks and final degree classification of just over 100 British and Chinese accounting and finance first-degree students who enrolled in 2008 — cites two factors:

First, Chinese students fail to adapt their approaches to learning and so their performance declines in the later years of a degree when the complexity of the work increases. And, second, while the UK and Chinese education systems are not that different, the strong focus in China on study and achieving qualifications means many young people enrol in higher education due to pressure from family or the jobs market rather than their own motivation.

There’s no question that studying overseas is difficult. This is why we believe adjustment is so important and why we wrote a guide to help parents and students understand what to expect of the overseas study experience. Whether socially or academically, knowing what others will expect of you will be crucial to helping you perform better, if not well. As Cristina Iannelli, professor of education and social stratification at the University of Edinburgh, observes “we accept all these students but we don’t know much about them. "I see some of them struggling because they really don’t know before coming here exactly what is expected of them."

Find out more here.

This blog first appeared in Prep Beijing on December 4 and was written by Alicia Lui.

Alicia Lui is a co-founder at Prep Beijing!, a coaching company focusing on core soft skills such as effective communication, social and emotional skills, etiquette, critical thinking and leadership skills. Prior to founding Prep Beijing! She has worked in management consulting and in banking. She holds and MBA from INSEAD and Bachelor’s from University of Chicago

Photo courtesy of wikimedia commons.

I substitute taught at school all week and had the opportunity to really see how much 10 and 11-year olds are engaged in technology. I mean really engaged. I knew it, of course, having a daughter that age myself. These kids know far more about computers and all things electronic than I do, and that’s all good since they’ll be surrounded by it for the rest of their lives. I’m amazed at their abilities, considering I started waaaaaay back with floppy disks, something called cc:mail (like e-mail) and other ancient computer casualties.

But with every free minute the students have – indoor recess due to poor air quality, or simply spare time when their work is finished – they are on their Macs. Some play games, others create videos, but they all get on the computer.

At the same time, there seem to be an increasing number of social issues surfacing at school these days: conflict with friends at recess and an ironically ill-timed and insensitive comment during a lesson on empathy, for example. Is this just typical of the age? Maybe. Are there cultural dynamics to keep in mind? Perhaps. Or are our kids not learning – and practicing – appropriate social skills to carry them through adulthood?

Studies far and wide have shown some of the negative implications of kids spending too much time on computers or other electronics. One real concern is the lack of physical exercise, which can lead to a host of other health issues. Another is that some kids tend to become withdrawn when primarily interacting with computers. Is it because they have introverted personalities, or because they aren’t perfecting their social abilities? And what about overall dialogue skills? Texting and computers encourage abbreviated talk — how does this affect real face-to-face conversation practice in our young kids? 

Another negative: handwriting. I can barely read my daughters’ handwriting anymore. Our kids are keyboard trained, and far earlier than my generation. Although I endured handwriting drills as a young student, my own penmanship has suffered as I’m a much faster typist than I am writer-with-a-pen (and my hands don’t cramp up as much). But considering the dexterity development of young fingers, I sure hope legible handwriting isn’t a thing of the past.

At a recent outing with my daughter that included lunch, I was struck by the number of families I saw sitting at tables, each with their own mobile phone or other electronic device capturing their complete attention. The family members were together, but did not interact at all. Is this healthy?

Of course, I believe that families instill their own values with their children. Some may primarily use technology as a resource, preferring to keep active and family time a high priority. Manners and morals are usually learned as a result of the overall family unit, and the use of technology at school or elsewhere doesn’t counter that.

I feel conflicted about it all. I want my kids to be up to speed on all kinds of technology, as I know first-hand what it’s like to feel behind in that kind of thing. It’s essential for their learning, future careers and lives. But I also want my kids to be kids – playing outside with lots of friends, knowing how to resolve their differences, and actually enjoying quality time interacting with other people. Like everything else, it’s a healthy balance that we seek for our kids.  And after work today, I had my kids turn their computers off and we talked to each other.  How refreshing!